ISpitonyourGrave

I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

Jennifer is a writer from the big city that has rented a beautiful cabin for the summer. She wants to get away from the hustle and bustle to spend some time working on her book. But when the beautiful young woman runs into some of the local men they decide to take advantage of her. This leads to a brutal rape and beating. Having thought they killed her the men fail to realize that Jennifer is recovering and planning. When it comes her revenge is as ruthless as the men’s attack on her.

This is one of those movies that I always have difficulty discussing. Because of the content of the vicious attack and rape of the main character I can’t say that I like I Spit on your Grave. I mean that would just sound wrong and insensitive. But that said the movie is very well made and something that I would recommend that fans of the exploitation genre need to check out. Now let me explain myself a bit here.

The movie is paced well and spends just enough time with the Jennifer Hills character as to make the audience really like her. At least I’ve always been sympathetic to the character. This is further enhanced by the performance of the lovely Camille Keaton in the role. To me she has such an innocence that when the attack happens I get a little sick to my stomach. I know it is a movie, but I really like the character and it is an emotional kick to the gut watching what happens to her. This emotional connection allows us as an audience to viscerally participate with her during her acts of vengeance later on. When she gets even we get even.

But it isn’t just the victim that is well rounded, but her attackers as well. Well I should say a couple of them anyways. On the one had you have the family man, who is brutal to her, but keeps invoking his family when he is threatened. Plus his attempts at justifying what they did when faced with a gun have always made me feel angry and frustrated at his ignorance. And that personal reaction has always made the character that much more disgusting to me, making it a much more memorable character then the normal cookie cutter villain most of these movies offer the audience. The inclusion of the mentally challenged attacker that is sort of goaded into participating also adds a bit of sympathy to what normally would have been unsympathetic plot device (the rapist). Though his lack of mental capacity doesn’t prevent him from getting what is coming to him.

As well as the story and characters are written they don’t outshine the technical bits behind the movie. The movie is beautifully shot and the camera uses the peaceful nature of the lake and surrounding woods to create an atmosphere of tranquility. This makes the attack in such surroundings all that more jarring and disturbing when they happen. I’ve also always thought that the camera showing us the men attacking from Jennifer’s point of view further makes that connection between the audience and character. In many ways the movie is trying to assault you with some of the visuals. Finally as a whole I think this might be the most violent onscreen sexual assault that anyone has ever shot. And if you don’t agree with me on that you would at least have to agree that it is the longest. There is a lot of screen time dedicated to it and it goes on in 3 different locations. Just brutal stuff guys.

I Spit on your Grave gets lumped in with the other rape/revenge movies that filled the grindhouse, drive-ins, and eventually the video store shelves. But there is so much more to this one and it is a damn shame that it gets lumped in with the exploitive movies from this subgenre. The biggest compliment that I can give this movie is that I don’t watch it very often because it “sticks” with me for days. Do I enjoy I Spit on your Grave? No I don’t, but I do respect it for the outstanding bit of filmmaking that it is. If you haven’t seen it then I recommend that you take the time to check it out.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer